I cannot think of any way in which having watched it first had a negative impact on our reading experience.
We noted a few differences: Matilda is younger, in the book; she has a brother (different than the film, but not the stage version); there is no escapologist nonsense. Okay. So what?
People come into the shop all the time for whatever The Hot Thing is -- Dune, Wuthering Heights, Project Hail Mary -- saying, Well of course I've got to read it first. It shocks them when I suggest that maybe, just maybe, they don't.
How did this idea take hold? And take such hold that it is accepted gospel, really, for those who read? ...I think therein lies the answer. It is important that the book get read; that we're all not just watching the movie and being satisfied. Yes. But it got taken too far.
Consider: If you read the book first, you go to the movie holding this entire world in your head. You'll compare every plot point, measure the actors against your imagination, be annoyed when the entire thing wasn't there. But if you watch the movie first: you'll enjoy a good movie. And then you'll pick up the book and find that there is so, so much more.
Obviously this only works for a good movie. But that's fine; we're not seeing the bad ones. I say: Watch the movie first. Just make sure you do read the book after.
Recipe: Katharine Hepburn's brownies. Becuase sometimes you're in someone else's house and they do not have 5kg of chocolate lying around but they do have cocoa powder. (They didn't even have nuts; I chopped up some cocoa hazelnut protein bars no one really wanted and used those for texture instead.)
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